00:00The moment you enter this little back channel it seems to just completely change.
00:06It's gonna get tight up here, guys. We're gonna have to drop down to our knees to paddle through here.
00:11Okay.
00:13The deeper we go into the mangroves, the more uncomfortable it gets.
00:17I'm already incredibly hot. Then I start getting bit, I'm getting snagged, and I'm just boiling up.
00:23Oh. Oh, shoot.
00:28And then...
00:31This is it.
00:32This is huge.
00:33Guys, this is probably the most isolated part of the park. Very few people get back here.
00:38Oh, man. Is this the lagoon back here?
00:40Yep. This is the northern basin of Jones Lagoon.
00:43It's beautiful.
00:45Look how it just opens up.
00:46Oh, yeah.
00:47All these things that look like rocks on the bottom that have holes in the top of them, those are sponges.
00:52Sponges are amazing. They are the simplest multicellular organism in the animal kingdom.
00:56They say that one sponge about the size of a basketball can filter the equivalent of an Olympic-sized swimming pool in one day.
01:03Wow.
01:04And that's one of the reasons the water is so clear back here.
01:07When they're filtering this out, is that how they're gaining energy?
01:11That's how they feed. They're filter feeders.
01:13Wow.
01:14The most seemingly insignificant things usually produce some of the biggest impacts on these places.
01:22I never would have thought, A, that those are sponges, or B, that they're the reason that this water is clear.
01:27No, not at all, but I think that's what makes ecosystems like this so incredible.
01:32Jones Lagoon is full of surprises, from a sponge that looks like a rock to a marine creature that looks like a flower.
01:38It's a Cassiopeia jellyfish, but it goes by another name.
01:42They call these the upside-down jellyfish because they lay on the bottom upside-down.
01:47The algae that live inside of them photosynthesize, and it creates oxygen and energy.
01:52As that algae photosynthesizes, it releases the oxygen into the jellyfish, and that's how they breathe.
02:01You see it here? There's a lot of color in this.
02:04Oh, wow.
02:05It's not your typical-looking jellyfish.
02:08Most jellyfish are clear or translucent, and that color comes from the algae that live inside of it.
02:13So you've got algae inside the jellyfish. It's photosynthesizing, and that's what makes this thing be able to breathe.
02:19That's how it lives, yep.
02:20So they depend on each other.
02:22It's a symbiotic relationship.
02:23Wow.
02:24So just like this?
02:25Yep, just like that.
02:26I'm going to get stung.
02:27No, you won't.
02:28Yes, I will.
02:29Oh!
02:30Keep it down.
02:31Oh, in the water.
02:32It's okay.
02:33Wow.
02:34Since it lies on its back, Colton isn't touching its stingers, which aren't painful to humans anyway.
02:39It's amazing seeing all these different organisms living together in this ecosystem.
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